Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Glimmer of Hope For Gas Tax?

Senators Murphy (D) and Corker (R) Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase

It's long past due. And as Atrios rightly points out, with current gas prices and price fluctuations, consumers would not even notice the implementation. There are greater than 12-cent swings week to week as it is.

"Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) have proposed increasing the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon over two years. The federal gas tax currently stands at 18.4 cents a gallon, where it has been set since 1993, when gas cost $1.16 a gallon. The senators' proposal would also extend some expiring tax cuts as a way to reduce the impact on Americans. This proposal — while still not introduced as a formal bill — has far more potential than anything else that's been offered. President Obama's corporate tax scheme was dead on arrival, even though it had support from the Republican chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Dave Camp. Rep. Peter DeFazio's idea of a per-barrel oil fee and Sen. Barbara Boxer's idea for a wholesale oil tax don't have Republican support. Neither does Rep. Earl Blumenauer's 15-cent gas tax hike, which was the most logical proposal on the table, until now. What the House Republicans want to do is fund the transportation bill by reducing Saturday postal service — a hare-brained scheme if ever there was one."